Clint it is really weird! Let me tell you why…. I’m a big fan of cult films like the Wicker Man(the original not the shoddy remake)and Escape from NY among others. Escape from NY is one of the most famous/notorious films of the cult/sci-fi genre. The whole bit about calling Snake, Plissken or Plissken ,Snake was humorous in an Old West type of way. The collection of characters like Van Cleef (star of the Sabata fims and other westerns does a great job as Snake’s foil. Cabbie (Ernie Borgnine) was a welcome sight that provided understated comic relief, and Barbeau was the cheescake in the film. And the Duke of NY? He was over the top fun. The film was played firmly in cheek (to a certain degree) and was not over produced in terms of special effects. Now onto why Escape from LA was not it’s equal.

The problem with LA is that it goes totally satiric and comedic on the whole Snake bit. I consider it to be one of Carpenter’s worst films. It is not bad by another genre director’s measure but it is with reference to Carpenter’s standards. The odd collection of people like the first one doesn’t work the same way. Yeah, it’s fun to see Peter Fonda as the surfer dude, but what the heck was Steve Buscemi doing in this one? These side characters that were somehat comedic in the original became total camp in LA! The special effects were also very weak for a big budget movie of the time as well. This film came out 5 years after T2 so the CGI shouldn’t have been so bloody weak. Despite the bigger budget, LA didn’t have the same ingenuity as the much cheaper original. They might have had an emormous budget but it was devoid of the heart and spark that the orginal provided. That being said, Golino and Grier were cute ,too BUT the whole Grier is really a dude bit with the scary basso profondo voice put me off…..